To:
Senator Bernie Sanders

Encourage Senator Bernie Sanders to Run for President in 2016 as a Democrat

We, the Undersigned, do hereby ask Senator Bernie Sanders to commit to running in the 2015/2016 Presidential primaries as a Democrat.

Why is this important?

Progressive Democrats of America agree with the great Texas populist Jim Hightower, who often says: “We sure could use a Second Party!”; and

PDA, standing in the tradition of progressive hero Paul Wellstone, is calling for a champion of “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” to step forward;

Senator Bernie Sanders is a lifelong champion of working class Americans, and an eloquent defender of labor unions, living wages, expanded Social Security, protecting Medicare & Medicaid, moving towards single-payer health care for all, and choosing “prosperity” over “austerity”; and

Bernie Sanders is one of the few prominent elected officials who can also clearly explain how the current neoliberal economic system leads to climate change which jeopardizes the future “sustainability” of our only planet; and

Senator Sanders is one of the very few top officeholders who will stand up to the 1%, who gets it that money is not speech, and corporations are not people; and

Senator Sanders knows that militarism and Empire-building are huge obstacles to building an American economy that actually works for the 99%; and

Poor and working class Americans need someone in the 2016 Democratic primaries to stand up for their rights in 2015 and 2016; and

The Nation magazine has pointed out, the country as a whole, Democratic primary voters, and even the potential Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign would all benefit from a serious primary challenge based on policy substance and real issues rather than trivial personality differences; and

Bernie Sanders understood the importance of fighting “inside” the Democratic Party primaries when he was one of the few elected White politicians to endorse Jesse Jackson’s historic and powerful Presidential primary campaign in 1988; and

Bernie Sanders understood the very real danger of total Republican control of the U.S. Government in 2004, including the then-impending danger of George W. Bush appointments to the Supreme Court, when he supported Democratic nominee John Kerry for President over his long-time friend and ally, Ralph Nader; and

The John Roberts Court has made it crystal clear how dangerous it is to a democracy of, by, and for the people, after its disastrous decision in the Citizens United case, its attack on the Voting Rights Act, and all of its pro-corporate rulings, a 5-4 cabal just waiting to be strengthened for years to come by a chance for a new Republican President to name a replacement for elderly Justice Ruth Ginsburg; and

Young people in particular need a candidate to organize alongside, as they begin their lifelong struggles against Wall Street’s greed, Empire’s decay, inequality’s destructiveness, and fossil fuels’ devastation; and

We all need a “fighter” to stand up on behalf of a fair economy that works for all of us, just as Bernie Sanders has done throughout his entire career; and

No one in American politics today is as independent, tough-minded, honest, and fierce in his loyalties towards working people as Senator Bernie Sanders;

We, the Undersigned, make this call for a primary challenge in full recognition of the need to prevent the current crazed, mean, and dangerous incarnation of the Republican Party from seizing total power; and

We, the Undersigned, do declare that we will knock on doors, donate, make phone calls, use social media, and do everything we can to elect Bernie Sanders the next President of the United States.